We were checking out some of the well known ‘Earth from above‘ series by Yann-Arthus Bertrand on one of our favourite photo-blogs HERE the other day, when it dawned on us… hey… we’ve actually driven past many of these places!

And so was inspired this post of interesting things we passed on our trip up Africa, that you can check out on google earth. Unfortunately we found, some of the cooler things we thought of are not quite clear enough on the satellite images available from google. The mysterious multi-coloured Manengouba lakes, and Mt Cameroon lava-flow bisecting the road near Etisah spring to mind…

Here are some other interesting places we passed, and covered on the site, which we can now offer a bit of vertical perspective on…

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1. The bridge over the river Congo – Matadi, DRC

“how on earth will you get across the Congo river” was one of the more common questions we had in the earlier part of our journey. We were thus stoked to find this – a beautiful suspension-bridge just outside Matadi in the DRC.

Indeed the Congo is an inspiring body of water. To put things into perspective just take a look at the size of some of those ships docked on the pier South East of the bridge… (more HERE)

Contrary to popular belief, the largest church in the world is not in Rome. In fact it is in Yamoussoukro, the small political capital of Cote d’Ivoire, a few hundred km’s north of the more vibrant Abidjan.

There is much we don’t understand about this church (for example, were there not maybe better uses for the money?!), but one thing is for sure – it is probably one of the biggest and most impressive modern structures we’ve ever seen… (more HERE)

The largest mud-brick building in the world is in a small town on the Bani river in Mali. The whole town is actually made almost entirely of mud brick, and is typical of most towns found in this fascinating area of Mali. (more HERE)

Surrounded by the Sahara desert, we did not have very high expectations for Nouadhibou. No one, however, had told us about what must be one of the worlds’ more expansive ship graveyards that exists here for various reasons.

There’s something quite powerful about seeing so many of these once graceful vessels in one place, dying a slow and rather uncomfortable-looking death. (more HERE)

Africa + Surfing = AfricanSurfer

The original trip

March 2007: Tim, Lurks & Stone mission north from Cape Town up the west coast of Africa, in search of good waves and good times.
Their vehicle: a trusty 1981 Landcruiser named Mzee Kobe (The Old Tortoise).
Their final destination: London... finally arriving almost a year behind schedule in latter 2008!